Concertgebouw de Doelen: a new direction, a new site

De Doelen are about to enter a new era in which they will not only have to retain their current audience but also win over new audiences to engage with the many genres de Doelen has to offer. How do you approach that? How can a stage with such a wide range of genres, halls and audiences be made accessible, and how can you continue to offer targeted motivation for all those various visit purposes and target audiences?

Together with our partner After Digital, we set to work on that assignment and developed a strategic rebranding process into a completely new design built from the ground up, in which the objectives and challenges were met with the help of a number of newly developed features.

How we built a site for different target groups

De Doelen wanted a refreshed website that embraces their own brand identity, draws in new visitors, and still appeals to the audience who already often attends concerts. It was crucial to introduce this to a new, younger audience given the expanding programme that goes beyond classical music and allows other genres, including hip-hop and techno, a home. with the intention of creating a visitor demographic that resembles the city of Rotterdam.

Strategy

All target groups were broadly analysed during strategic discussions. We considered both the numerous target groups that had not yet been engaged as well as the target groups that De Doelen had already been able to reach. All of these groups' precise needs have been looked into. The entire site's content was then gathered and organised to offer a simple navigation for each of these unique visitors. After Digital created a practical design and eventually a sleek design based on this.

An important insight was that most users were looking for a specific type of event. As a result, the design emphasised genre filters. This makes it possible for the visitor to browse through the information fast and easily find what they're looking for. In addition to the genre filters, a lot and extensive use of photography has also been chosen. The sessions shown that the latter can have a significant impact on younger audiences.

de Doelen is a place for everyone, a place where everyone is welcome and feels at home. This already starts online, on our website. A good user experience is key here. Important steps have been taken in this respect with more images, a genre based navigation, better readability of texts and a light/dark switch.

– Vincent Sturkenboom, Manager Marketing & Development

Discovery session at de Doelen

Design to implementation

After the design stage, we at Peppered began the site's implementation. We also created a number of new features that are now accessible to all current and prospective Peppered users.

Light/dark mode

De Doelen has actually picked not just one, but two new designs: t he renewed website has a light and a dark mode. To enable users to move between the two modes, we placed a switch next to the language button in the header. Also, the light and dark modes operate in accordance with your system settings, allowing de Doelen to always present their website in the theme of their visitors' choice.

Focus on genres

The website frequently focuses on the numerous music genres that are played in the concert hall in order to make the wide range of de Doelen known to the many different target groups. We created the new function 'Featured genres' specifically for this. Here you can choose the genre of your liking, with each option linking to the calendar view of that genre.

But the genres are also highlighted in other places on the website. We have therefore created a new styling option for various sections, which allows you to display the genres above titles.

Concert agenda

The great variety of genres are primarily highlighted in the concert agenda as well. Here is where the newly added 'Featured genres' section reappears, where the most significant genres are enabled for selection. Below that are two more types of filters: the additional filters and the date filter. The former shows all other filters and with the date filter, visitors can then select a specific day or period. In this way, visitors can quickly find what they are looking for among the wide range of De Doelen.